Tutorial preview: Create Metallic Textures

Marco Nelor teaches us how to create our own armoured assassins by painting from scratch

Recent video games and movies are inspiring many of you to take to digital painting and create some seriously awesome characters.

A current booming trend can be seen in mechanical fashion, or robotic armour. Franchises such as RoboCop and Metal Gear are perpetuating enthusiast examples.

Here, we show you how to perfect similar looks. Before you attempt this tutorial, though, we must warn you that you’ll need either an aptitude for digital painting or a passion to learn more about it. It can’t hurt to immerse yourself in a favourite video game or movie one more time, to facilitate your own ideas.

Photoshop then helps bring your visions to life using the most basic of tools. Brushes are used to sketch ideas, create forms and build contours. Brush and layer blend modes play their part in fashioning lighting, reflections and shadows in order to create atmosphere. Several colour-lay techniques breathe life into your image and a host of special effects will really ramp up a sci-fi look.

When you are designing a character, remember that the most important thing is to fill up your imagination by surrounding yourself with those ‘cool’ characters that you hope to someday create – they will give you inspiration.